Miami’s Cam Ward sets NCAA’s Division I record for career touchdown passes

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Cam Ward made NCAA history in his final college game.

The Miami quarterback threw a record-setting 156th touchdown pass of his college career Saturday, connecting with Jacolby George for a 4-yard score with 4:12 left in the first quarter of the Pop-Tarts Bowl.

That’s the Division I — FBS and FCS — record, one more than Houston‘s Case Keenum threw from 2007 through 2011. Ward added two more touchdown passes in the first half to bring his final career total to 158, before he sat out the second half of Iowa State’s 42-41 thrilling comeback win.

Ward may not hold the record for long. Oregon‘s Dillon Gabriel — whose team could play as many as three games in the College Football Playoff — has 153 touchdown passes so far in his career, spanning six seasons at UCF, Oklahoma and now Oregon.

Either way, Ward is assured of finishing college with one of the top careers by any quarterback at any level.

He entered Saturday with 17,999 yards — 6,908 at Incarnate Word, 6,968 at Washington State and 4,123 at Miami — for the third-most in NCAA history behind only Keenum (19,217) and Gabriel (18,423). He threw for 190 yards against Iowa State to finish with 18,189 career passing yards.

And when it’s all done, Ward will be on the touchdown list for a while as well.

The all-division NCAA record is 162 touchdown passes by John Matocha from Division II’s Colorado School of Mines from 2019 through 2023.

Tyson Bagent of Division II’s Shepherd threw for 159 touchdowns from 2018 through 2022. Braxton Punk of Division III’s Mount Union threw for 158 from 2019 through 2023; North Central’s Luke Lehnen, whose team will play in the Division III national championship game next month, also has 158 in his career. Ward is now tied with Punk and Lehnen for third on the NCAA list.

Ward rewrote Miami’s record book in 2024, his lone season with the Hurricanes. He will leave as Miami’s single-season leader in yards (4,313), completions (305) and touchdown passes (39). He also will depart as the Hurricanes’ leader in completion percentage — both for a season (65.8%, set in 2023 by Tyler Van Dyke) and for a career (64.3% by D’Eriq King in 2020 and 2021).

Ward completed 67.2% of his passes this season, and has made enough passing attempts to qualify for the Hurricanes’ career list.

The 22-year-old is expected to be a high pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. In his most recent mock draft for FOX Sports, Jason McIntyre projects Ward to go No. 1 overall to the New York Giants.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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